Designed by resident, for residents: Siglap's coming integrated hub

Architect's idea draws inspiration from its past as a fishing village

- Joyce Lim

In Siglap, plans for a new integrated hub are taking shape – a project that reimagines what a community club can be.

At the centre of the development is a 240-seater black box theatre, envisioned as a space to bring performing arts into the heartland. The design will also incorporate multi-purpose sports courts for badminton, basketball and pickleball, as well as purpose-built co-working spaces.

The hub, slated for completion in 2029, will be built in Upper East Coast Road and will replace the ageing, 64-year-old Siglap South Community Club just 500m away.

But unlike other new community clubs, the design process for the coming Siglap building was spearheaded by a Siglap resident, architect Edmund Ng.

Mr Ng, 52, a Joo Chiat community volunteer who runs his own architecture firm, was asked in 2022 by Mr Edwin Tong, who is MP for the Joo Chiat ward, if he was keen to join a brainstorming session for ideas for a new community club.

But what began as a casual invitation to contribute to a potential new community centre became a deeply personal project – Mr Ng spent almost a year on research and crafting a proposal.

He spoke to residents to find out what they wanted, drove around the island to look at other community clubs and studied the history of the Siglap estate.

His eventual idea drew inspiration from Siglap's history as a fishing village surrounded by plantations, and has a sloping green facade covered in native plants for the hub's exterior.